


and heavy is the crown

by rajishana



Series: among the ruins [2]
Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 06:43:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14889599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rajishana/pseuds/rajishana
Summary: It is hours before Shuri learns that her brother is dust.(Shuri never wanted this.)





	and heavy is the crown

It is hours before Shuri learns that her brother is dust.

After the attack on the hospital, she runs to the battlefield, knowing she has done all she can to save the synthetic being left in her care. She arrives with gasping breath and sees an army razed, her brothers in arms turned to dust. They disintegrate before her, skin crumbling to ash, and the thick fear in her throat is nauseatingly familiar. It is a scene out of her worst nightmares. She sees half of her people gone in an instant, and it is a tragedy, a violation, that half of Wakanda is wiped from the planet without even bodies to grieve.

But Shuri is a genius, second in line for the throne of Wakanda, and she will not fail now. There are still enemies to fight, further death to prevent. The Dora Milaje, shocked in the face of destruction, snap to action at Shuri’s call. Shuri fights the gruesome aliens by their side, the invading forces halved as instantly as her own. Her palms sweat as blast after blast of energy burn the creatures, their bodies distorted and skin blackened. This was never something she trained for - the smell of burning meat digging itself into her nose, wiping the sticky, burning blood of her enemies away from her mouth as the Dora Milaje cuts them down in front of her eyes - but Shuri can compartmentalize when she must. And she must, now.

Even after, when they begin to collect the bodies of the dead and transport the wounded, when the alien bodies are piled up and their acidic blood start to eat into the grass, Shuri does not go to find her brother. She goes to the hospital, her fingers flying as she manages the most sensitive equipment, working on stitching those most near death back together. She surrounds herself with mechanics and surgical equipment, aides wiping sweat from her brow as she focuses, and Shuri pushes away fears for her family. She pushes away fears for her brother, at the heart of the battle, and the knowledge that he is not as indefatigable as she had believed in her childhood.

Shuri shoves the memory of Killmonger, the fear, to the back of her mind until the last procedure is complete. Turning away, she brings up the vitals and location tracking for the Black Panther suit right there in the sterile hospital room and, finding nothing, is almost immediately sick. Shuri swallows it down, knowing that even her technology can break in battle. T’Challa has survived before, and she must believe he has survived now.

She calls for her family -- for Okoye, for Nakia, for her mother as she works, and they are each brought to her, one by one. They meet in a hospital conference room, and Shuri’s eyes flicker back to the door over and over as a nurse stitches a wound on Nakia’s arm. Shuri’s hopes do not last for long. Okoye arrives last, and she dismisses the nurse immediately, Nakia’s wound barely closed shut. Okoye’s eyes are dull when she informs the royal family that the king is dead.

Shuri’s brother is dead.

  
Shuri gasps and collapses against her mother, whose fingers are digging tightly into her shoulders. Okoye’s shoulders are slumped, her proud figure worn, and Shuri can see Okoye’s eyes fill with tears as she explains further, voice thick. Nakia sits quietly, her face twisting as she realizes the unimaginable for a second time. Nakia’s emotions flicker rapidly across her face, too fast for Shuri to read, before settling on an expression of sorrow so deep Shuri can feel it resonate in her chest. Nakia turns to her, solemn, as Nakia realizes what comes next, what Shuri has already realized even as she sobs into her mother.

"We cannot allow Wakanda to falter here," Nakia says, quietly. Her voice is hoarse, but it is firm, like vibranium. She has always put Wakanda and the world first, Shuri thinks, even above her own broken heart. "We must stand strong."

Shuri sucks in a breath, restrains the sobs choking her throat. She knows what must happen, now. She’s always known, has trained for it, even as she imagined that it would never come to pass.

If the king is dead, there must be a new king. Or queen.

"I will not allow the infighting to destroy what T’Challa built," she says.

"It is your birthright," her mother says.

"It is T’Challa’s!"

"T’Challa is gone," Nakia says, and her mouth trembles as she says it. "But you are right. We cannot allow infighting. We must act quickly. You must show yourself to be a capable leader now, make sure no other will challenge you."

Shuri bows her head. "I never wanted this," she admits quietly, despite all her jokes made long before an actual coup ever took place. Despite her childish complaints when T’Challa was being unbearably serious about his role as Prince, despite her grin and rolling eyes whenever their father mentioned T’Challa’s future. T’Challa was always meant to be king, and he had never buckled under the weight of the crown.

"Even so, you will bear it," her mother says, finally.

"You will not be alone, little sister," Nakia says, and the burning in her eyes is a relief.

Okoye merely bows her head, her arms crossing across her chest. "My Queen."

This was never what Shuri wanted.

But this is not about what Shuri wants. This is about what Wakanda needs, what the world needs in the face of its immeasurable loss. Shuri will not allow her country to fall. She will not lead her people to ruin.

A week from now she will grieve, eyes dark and exhausted and sore as Wakanda pulls itself back together, as the clans rally around her, as she makes call after call to the United Nations. She will rub her pounding head as she coordinates humanitarian missions throughout the world, death toll rising despite her best interventions. She will speak through a chest thick with sorrow as she offers the full measure of Wakanda’s technological advancements to Captain America and his Avengers, off to end the monster that murdered her brother. Shuri will scream into the empty, echoing training hall after they leave, furious and unable to join them, as Okoye wraps her arms around her and they clutch each other close. But here, now, Shuri has work to do.

She is Queen of Wakanda, and she will not fail.


End file.
